The collection of whole blood from donors has become a highly refined and very successful activity. Blood collection sites are routinely established, on a temporary basis, in church basements and recreation halls or in trailers by organizations such as the American National Red Cross and its related counterparts for the purpose of making the donation of whole blood very convenient.
One aspect of the success of such blood donation campaigns has been the development and widespread use of sterile, plastic blood collection sets. These sets are designed for use with blood accumulated from one donor and are manufacturable very inexpensively. Such sets are well-known and are described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,379 to Smith issued Sept. 16, 1980.
One aspect of the use of such sets is that they can be formed with multiple interconnected containers for the purpose of separating the whole blood into components within a single sealed sterile system. As a result of the use of such multi-container donation sets, the whole blood can be separated into components such as platelets, plasma and the remaining residual concentrated red blood cells. After processing and separation, the various containers are sealed, separated from one another and are stored and then made available to medical centers or hospitals as needed.
The collection center will probably test the whole blood and/or components. These tests can include ABO typing, Rh determination, D.sup..mu. determination, antibody screen, syphilis screen, HB.sub.s A.sub.g screen and the HTLV3 antibody test. The results of these tests are often manually recorded on the respective container or containers.
To conduct these tests it is necessary to remove a sample from the collection or component container. To date, it has not been possible to conduct such tests on a production basis without separating the specimen from the contents of the respective container.
Prior to the use of whole blood or components it is common practice for the center expecting to use the blood or components to again conduct various types of tests with respect to those fluids. For example, before whole blood is provided to a patient, it is routinely ABO tested to insure that the patient is receiving the correct type of blood. The various alternate tests may be conducted again as well.
After determining blood type immediately prior to expected administration, if for some reason the patient does not need that particular unit of blood, it will be returned to the blood storage center of the hospital. Prior to being used subsequently, it will be retyped again. Each time, immediately prior to administration, it is standard practice to retype each blood unit.
One known system of collecting and typing blood utilizes a multicontainer blood collection pack marketed by Travenol Laboratories, Inc. under the trademark BLOOD-PACK. In this system a flexible collection container is provided. Attached to the collection container is a fluid flow conduit. A free end of the fluid flow conduit has a draw cannula attached thereto.
In use, the draw cannula is used to pierce the vein of donor and a unit of blood is collected in the container. Subsequent to the collection phase, the draw conduit is sealed near the cannula. Any blood remaining in the draw conduit is forced into the container and mixed with anticoaulant in the container. A portion of the blood in the container is then forced into the draw conduit. The draw conduit can be heat sealed at a plurality of points. An identification number is repetitively printed on the draw conduit.
During the draw phase, the blood collection center will fill a pilot tube from donor for the purpose of typing the blood in the container. Subsequently, when the Medical Center prepares to utilize the blood in the container, one or more of the sealed segments of the draw cannula can be broken off at a heat seal. The blood in the broken off section of the draw conduit can then be removed from that section of the conduit and ABO tested. Additionally, the blood can be removed from a second segment of the draw conduit and cross matched with a portion of the patient's blood. The identification number which has been repetitively printed on the draw conduit provides a permanent identification of the removed tubing segments which can be related to the collection container.
In the above described system, the segments of the draw conduit are sealed by dielectric or heat sealing subsequent to the container having been filled with the unit of blood. Further, it is standard practice to separate the segments from the BLOOD PACK for the purpose of carrying out the necessary ABO testing or cross matching.
The process of multiple testing units of blood prior to use is not only very common but is expensive. However, there has not been an acceptable alternate in view of the fact that units of blood may be shipped from city to city and/or state to state prior to usage. Hence, there continues to be a need for a system and/or method which would, in a highly reliable fashion, provide for testing for selected characteristics of a liquid such that it would only be necessary to carry out the test once. The results of such an apparatus or method could be substantial savings in test expenses without compromising the reliability of the test.